


i know when that hotline bling

by Pericardiaca



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Carlos is the boss, Checo is an idiot, Daniil is the sweetest, Falling In Love, Fluff, LITERALLY, M/M, Max is a bit shy, Schmoop, Toro Brosso, but they're really just bros, cuteness, kind of, meet cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 09:39:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11101866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pericardiaca/pseuds/Pericardiaca
Summary: Daniil and Carlos have to witness how Max and Checo interact very awkwardly, twice. They're there when they stop dancing around each other too, though.





	i know when that hotline bling

**Author's Note:**

> Salut mes pêches! :D   
> This is the second old fic I found on my hard drive. I can't remember how I came up with the pairing, but I'm a rare pair hoe so it's not really a surprise eh? I hope someone out there enjoys this.  
> If you'd leave a comment I'd love you forever!! And if you wanna you can check out my tumblr @[lewizhamilton](http://lewizhamilton.tumblr.com) :)  
> Happy reading  
> Sam x

Max smiled softly when he was finally dismissed from his debriefing. It was a beautiful day, warm sunrays made sure that the track glistened under the blue sky. All Max wanted now was ice cream (not stolen from Kimis stock; he was not suicidal thank you very much) and maybe an hour or two with Carlos sitting on a track wall and making fun of everyone who came along (Kimi excluded, he was still not suicidal). 

He was really happy that he was lucky enough to get his best buddy as a teammate. Even though he feared that their friendship would suffer from the pressure, expectations and rivalry, it was amazing to have someone to gossip with all the time. 

It’s not that he didn’t like the other drivers, but having a best friend who really understood him was as good as it could get when said best friend had a boyfriend. 

Carlos and Daniil were supercute together, Max was the last person to deny this but sometimes he was a bit jealous. Not only because he wanted a bit more of Carlos’ time, but because he wanted to have what they had. He sighed, it wasn’t his favourite topic to think about and he should really focus on getting that ice cream and luring Carlos into chilling on the track with him. 

So Max left the garage in direction of the Toro Rosso cafeteria. He knew that Carlos preferred citron but as the best buddy he was he’d obviously choose his own favourite: chocolate. 

Max nearly moaned when he thought about the treat, drooling over the thought of chocolate-y taste with a hint of caramel, ice cold against his tongue. He entered the building where most of the Toro Rosso employees relaxed after a day of hard work; but Max ignored everyone else and just focused on his ice cream task.

Later, this would be his excuse. 

He heard a voice speaking Spanish, far too fast for him to catch even a single word of the language he could barely introduce himself in, but he recognised the intonation. A grin spread on his face, content to have caught Carlos before Daniil did for once and therefore confident that their boy’s night would take place as planned. Still high on adrenaline from the practice sessions, happy with the world and having a friend like this, he took a running start and tackled the Spanish-speaking person to the ground. 

“GOTCHA!”, Max howled and started to giggle – that was when he realised that the person under him did not react with the “Verstappen get OFF me for fuck’s sake” he was used to. 

And he realised, that the person was somehow a bit smaller than Carlos usually was, and a lot warmer. And softer. Damn, that hair... Max got carried away with thoughts about all the places he was touching, the – in spite of the smaller body build - broad shoulders, the very fine ass that he was pressing his crotch against—

“Max?”, an unsure voice alerted him and his confused thoughts could finally place who this was. 

“Checo!” 

As fast as he could manage without crashing the other man he scrambled away and sat next to him on the floor, sure that his face must have turned beet red. 

He did not just press himself against Checo. Nope. Didn’t happen. 

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry Checo, I thought you were Carlos!” 

Well, this sounded weird as fuck. If this had been Carlos, Max would have never pressed himself against him. The thought alone made him scrunch his face a bit, Carlos was basically his brother! “Well, I mean, I realised you’re not Carlos because do you know that you smell really good?” 

Okay, no. Max sank his teeth into his lower lip to keep himself from saying even more stupid things. 

Like talking about the smell of a fellow formula one driver. 

Checo got up and gave Max a slightly haunted look. “Uh, well, sorry, I’m not. I think... Sorry, I should go.” As fast as he could Checo took off and left Max to himself, not bothering to deal with what Max just said. 

Good decision, Max thought, he could die from shame now. Perhaps he should steal Kimi’s ice cream after all. 

Max took a deep breath – without thinking about the lingering smell of Checos perfume – and tried to calm himself. “That didn’t really happen, did it?” Max asked no one in particular after staring at the spot where Checo had been until a few seconds ago. Perhaps he’d suffered from a spontaneous vivid hallucination. Or he had just witnessed a close encounter of the third kind – or a ghost? Well, Checo certainly hadn’t felt like a ghost.

“What didn’t happen?” Of course Carlos chose this exact moment to enter the lounge of the cafeteria. “What are you doing on the floor?” 

Max groaned and let himself fall back so that he was lying like a star-fish on the dirty floor; thank god the scenery had been set behind an ugly concrete column in the lounge where no one could have possibly seen them. 

“I just tackled Checo because I thought he was you and then told him I liked how he smelled. He thinks now that I’m a psychopath and I’m never ever going to be able to look him in the eyes again.” His voice sounded close to whining and he was loathing in self-pity when he hid his face behind his hands. 

Carlos chuckled. “Gods, Max. You can’t be left alone for a single minute without doing something weird can you?” 

Max only sighed heavily and finally got up, brushing the dirt out of his clothes. “I’m not kidding. He stared at me like I’m a lunatic or something!” Max could still feel the heat in his face and pulled a grimace. 

“Quit your whining! It was probably not even half bad and he was just surprised!“ Carlos tried to cheer him up and patted his shoulder before turning around and leaving the Toro Rosso building. 

“I’m not whining!” Max squealed indignantly and was quick to follow his buddy. “I’m just saying that I don’t want Checo Perez to think that I’m nuts. And I want ice cream.” 

“It’s nothing new that you’re nuts Max. Nothing new to anybody.”, Daniil commented when he suddenly appeared with a grin on his face and passed him a Double Chocolate Magnum. 

Did Max already mention that his best friend had the best boyfriend ever? And that he would gladly deliver a ten minute praise speech on their future wedding? 

“Thanks Uncle Daniil.”, Max beamed focusing on the ice cream in his hands. Daniil snorted and Carlos laughed, when Max quietly added: “I still don’t want that Checo thinks any less of me just because I’m a pathetic human being.”

“Checo? Where did you meet Checo? What happened?” Daniil asked bewildered. Max summed the events up and started to dwell on the question Daniil brought up. What had Checo been doing in the Toro Rosso building, hiding behind a concrete column and talking in Spanish, probably on the phone? 

 

#

 

“Go, for fuck’s sake!” Carlos pushed Max rather heartily onto the track, right into the way of one Mexican who was currently running laps there, followed by his panting physiotherapist. 

“Ow!” Max managed to trip over his own feet, not prepared for the push and he would have tumbled to the floor had it not been for Checo who caught him. 

“Careful!”, Checo pulled him against his body and Max’ thoughts went the exact same way as the last time he had been this close to him. He thought about body warmth and perfume and the way Checo’s chest heaved rather heavily from being out of breath. 

“Sorry”, Max slurred and tried to stand back on his own feet. 

“No worries”, Checo smiled and looked at him expectantly and only a little bit warily. 

“Uhm, so, I... you know, wanted to apologise.” Max choked on his words and tried to look everywhere else except into Checos eyes. “I’m really sorry, this is so embarrassing, I didn’t want to, Carlos and Daniil made me go to you, well they pushed me, those assholes, oh god, sorry, I shouldn’t curse, but it was really mean and I don’t even know why-“ 

He was rambling. 

So bad that it made less than no sense, probably. 

But Checo was still smiling when he finally interrupted his awkward babbling. “Perhaps we should go grab a coffee together or something, just to make sure that we’re able to interact without you falling into me?” 

It was meant to be a light-hearted joke, Max knew that, but regardless he could feel his cheeks heating up not only from the jab, but also the implication. A coffee with Checo. The person he’d told that they smelled good. This was the end, was it?

“... Only if you want to, obviously. Not to push you into anything.”, Checo added quickly when Max didn’t react apart from trying to keep his jaw from dropping. 

“Uh, no! I mean, yes. I mean, sure!” Max took a deep breath. He didn’t usually stammer so why start it now? “Thanks, Checo, I’d love to do that. I guess I didn’t exactly show my best side.”, he managed. 

Checo’s smile was suddenly a lot more genuine than before and Max felt something flutter in his chest. Huh. That was new. 

“Awesome! Just let me... finish my training I guess. Let’s meet up later?” Max nodded quickly and retreated with a quiet “See ya later!” to Carlos and Daniil, his eyes following Checo when he resumed his jogging. 

“I hate you.”, Max said to them, smiling brightly. “You have a date”, Carlos answered and high fived Max when he was sure that Checo was out of sight. “Like a real grown-up person.”, Daniil added and dodged a slap form Max. 

 

##

 

Max was so nervous that he was close to chewing on his finger nails when he sat opposite from Checo, a coffee in front of him. A Latte Macchiato, to be precise. “So...”, he started, not really knowing what to say. 

“So we’re here. Finally.”, Checo said, grinning. 

“Finally?” Max started confusedly to stir his Latte. “Well, I never got around to asking you what I actually intended when you decided to tackle me down in the Toro Rosso lounge.”, Checo explained, tiny pink blotches appearing on his cheek bones that were too adorable to be true. 

Max thought of Daniil’s question why Checo had been in the building at all. “You wanted to ask me something?” 

The Mexican slowly nodded. “Yes. Well. You managed to catch me really off-guard. You must have thought that I’m a lunatic to beat lose like that.”

Max started to giggle. “Actually, quite the contrary. I was pretty sure that _you_ thought _I_ ’m a lunatic.” 

For a second they laughed in unison. “Can we agree that neither of us is a madman?”, Checo finally asked. 

“Sure as hell”, Max answered, grinning widely. “So, what was it you wanted to ask me?” 

Checo’s blush deepened and he gestured over the table, nearly knocking his coffee over in the process. “Uh, you know, this.” 

“This?” Max raised his eyebrows questioningly. 

“Yeah. A... date.” Checo’s expression turned shy. “I mean-“ 

“No, no, it’s fine. I would’ve said yes.”, Max answered only a little bit self-consciously. 

“Really?”, Checo beamed. “Wow.” 

Before an awkward silence could set over the table, the waitress appeared and triggered with her questions a vivid discussion about their favourite fruits. 

 

A few tables away Carlos sighed contently and sipped from Daniil’s iced tea. “Looks like it worked out, did it?” 

Daniil nodded. “Stop drinking my beverage.” 

Carlos didn’t even bother to put it back in front of his boyfriend. “Even though I didn’t plan on this tackling incident thing, I think it worked out even better with it. Max can be so awkward sometimes, little annoying thing that he is.” 

With a chuckle Daniil stole his iced tea back. “You teamed up with his crush without telling him, what did you expect? I still think that it was all your fault because you called Checo when he was already in the lounge.” 

Carlos just shrugged. “At least they’ve got the funniest story ever how they got together. Thanks to me.” Daniil pulled his boyfriend into a tight embrace. “You know what? I still prefer ours.”

~Fin~


End file.
